WyoFile14%
Ann Simpson, beloved matriarch, senator’s wife and Wyoming arts champion, dies at age 94 12%
By Angus M. Thuermer Jr.25% Maggie Mullen8% Rebecca Huntington10%
7/31/2026, 4:12:53 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 25 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Emotion, Anecdotal, and Optimism Bias, with Halo Effect as the most egregious example at 33% saturation with 270 hits. Analysis detected 1,250 faulty-reasoning hits from 819 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 22.7% and a BS Rank of 12% (24,706 of 28,004 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 88.20% of the article peer group.
Ann Simpson died peacefully at 3 a.m.
Friday just a day after the full buck moon.
“She was awash in moonlight,” her daughter, Sue Simpson Gallagher, said.
“She looked good and at peace,” her son, Bill, said.
The mother of three and the steady half of one of the state’s most prominent political couples and tireless Wyoming boosters, Ann Simpson died Friday at the Cody Regional Health Spirit Hospice House.
She was 94.
“She didn’t wish to have any additional extraordinary care,” Bill said.
“She was willing to have God take his course, and that’s what [he] did.”
But the loss is tremendous.
“For all of us, her children and those whose lives she impacted, we are all heartbroken,” Sue said.
“But our hearts are full of gratitude for this life well lived, this beautiful human being who enhanced the world and will continue to do so through her legacy of family and friendship and love.”
Ann and Alan Simpson on the back porch of their Cody home in August 2023.
(Katie Klingsporn/WyoFile)
Ann Schroll was the biggest catch on campus at the University of Wyoming, Pete Simpson said, when his little brother, Al, told Pete he intended to marry Ann.
“I felt that he had lucked out,” Pete Simpson said at Al’s memorial service in Cody last year.
“And look here.
Look at this family.
Look at this result, this legacy.
Yeah, he lucked out, certainly we all did.”
Pete’s was one of many tributes to Ann, who was credited with supporting and stabilizing her husband and for being an unerring matriarch.
“He could not have done it without her.
She was the glue,” Bill Simpson said.
“They really were a team.
They were Ann and Al, Al and Ann.
It wasn’t just Al Simpson.”
Alan and Ann Simpson not long after they were married.
(Box 10449, Folder 3, Alan K.
Simpson Papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming)
Alan Simpson, the towering second son of one of Wyoming’s most prominent political families, was known for his across-the-aisle work as a Republican U.S. senator, spunky humor and larger-than-life personality.
He died March 14, 2025, at his home in Cody at age 93.
“He loved her dearly,” Bill Simpson said.
When Al died, it was apparent it wouldn’t be too long before Ann would follow him.
“They really couldn’t live without one another.”
A “Greybull gal at heart,” Ann was born 30 minutes after her twin sister, Nan Fogel Thorne, her son, Colin Simpson said, “I think somewhat to the surprise of her parents.”
Thorne died last year.
Ann’s older brother, Rob Schroll, an engineer, died several years ago.
Ann idolized Rob, Colin said, and despite losing their father to a brain tumor when she was a teen, “she loved her childhood.”
“She had some significant adversity in her young life that made her pretty darn tough,” Colin said.
“And she never felt sorry for herself, and rarely did she let you feel sorry for yourself, which was a great way to live.”
After her father’s passing, the family moved to Laramie, where Ann attended high school and the University of Wyoming.
All three siblings attended the university, where Ann earned a degree in education in the early 1950s.
She taught third grade for a year before she married and loved teaching and learning, something she shared with her children, Sue said.
She also loved the University of Wyoming Art Museum and leaves behind the legacy of the Ann Simpson Artmobile, which she started, Colin said, “because there were so many, so many children around Wyoming who didn’t have access to art.”
“And that was really one of her loves,” Colin said.
Ann Simpson and the Cody Fire District honor guard outside the Christ Episcopal Church in Cody for the March 31, 2025 funeral of her late husband, Alan Simpson.
(Dewey Vanderhoff)
Ann often joined her husband as he toured foreign countries, dined with heads of state and traveled Wyoming to hear from constituents.
The couple also championed Wyoming.
When the Simpsons returned to Cody after Al served three terms in the U.S.
Senate, Al and Ann poured their energy into bolstering Wyoming with contributions to institutions such as the Buffalo Bill Center of the West and the University of Wyoming.
“She was ready to join dad and her sister, Nan, and her mom and her brother Rob and all her wonderful other relatives and friends,” Colin said.
“She was a deeply Christian woman who loved God and knew that there was a better life ahead,” Colin said.
“And she was always realistic about death.
So that made it easier on all of us to understand that that was the natural flow of life.”
The post Ann Simpson, beloved matriarch, senator’s wife and Wyoming arts champion, dies at age 94 appeared first on WyoFile .
Speakers
8speakers56%attributed speech361writer words
Selected voice
100%flagged-word coverageSue Simpson Gallagher
64 attributed words14% of attributed speech51% writer coverage
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